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Eds Times & Delta

Gentlemen – When
any one makes a public mis statement
and finds himself in error it becomes
him to make an early retraction
correct himself at once –

In an [illegible] a note ^{added to} to the circular
of the Northwestern University ^{which you were so kind to publish} I stated
that through your paper, that the
only poisonous reptiles known in Illinois
were the Rattlesnakes and copperhead –
Since These two ^{Rattlesnakes (several species) and the copperhead} with the moccassin
snake of the south are the only poisonous
venomous reptiles known in the union,
and as the moccassin is considered to
be strictly a southern species I thought
it impossible that it could exist as far north as this - But southern
Illinois possesses a wonderful climate
But ^{last season} while on a visit in the Mississip
bottom in Union Co ^{last year} I was undecieved
by the production a person who
brought me a most indubitable big
^ugly moccassin – here called “cotton mouth” -
generally I believe - while a ^{large and ugly but} harmless water snake
goes under the ^incorrect name of “Moccassin” –
Upon examination I find this species –
- (the venomous moccasin or cottonmouth
Toxicophis piscavoris of book the books) - to
be rather common in ^some of the lakes and
creeks of southern Illinois and it is
doubtless found from here southward to
the Gulf but ^though it is certainly unknown